Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burkewas an Irish statesman born in Dublin, as well as an author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after moving to London, served as a member of parliamentfor many years in the House of Commons with the Whig Party...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth12 January 1729
CountryIreland
chains exact liberty moral proportion qualified
What is liberty without...virtue? It is...madness, without restraint.Men are qualified for liberty in exact proportion to their dispositionto put moral chains upon their own appetites.
above chains civil exact justice liberties love men moral proportion qualified
Men are qualified for civil liberties in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetites: in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity
fills grain mountain national proportion separated truly useless valuable works
If the grain were separated from the chaff, which fills the works of our national poets, what is truly valuable would be to what is useless in the proportion of a molehill to a mountain
case sort taught treason
I know that many have been taught to think that moderation, in a case like this, is a sort of treason
becomes cannot ends indeed obtained society
Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
anxious confident despised ruined security
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than be ruined by too confident a security
change means state
A state without some means of change is without the means of its conservation
bullying freedom work
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
government unjust oppressive-governments
Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.
birth given neither nor preference unjust unnatural
Some decent, regulated preeminence, some preference given to birth, is neither unnatural nor unjust nor impolite
forget
So to be patriots as not to forget that we are gentlemen.
arises good mischief words
A very good part of the mischief that vex the world arises from words
america amuse men savage serves stories uncouth
Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners.
despair work
Never despair, but if you do, work in despair